The shortage of PD fast charging protocol chips occurs every year, especially this year. Since entering the second half of the year, the relationship between chip supply and demand in various fields has been very tense, and Apple's power chips have also been out of stock. Since the launch of iPhone 12, the shortage of chips has spread wantonly in the field of consumer power supply, and has become more and more intense.
The chip shortage storm has become a large-scale industrial event in the field of consumer power supply in recent years. No matter the original chip manufacturers, solution providers, fast charging factories and brands, they are all disturbed by the shortage event.
1、 Why are fast charging chips out of stock?
The word "out of stock of PD fast charging protocol chip" rarely appears in the field of consumer power supply. Even if it does, it may only be a short-term out of stock of several chips of a certain company. Because there are many substitutable competitive products for power chips, the general shortage can be alleviated by replacing materials, which will not evolve into such a mass industry event today. Why is there an abnormal shortage of fast charging chips this year?
From the external environment, it is caused by the insufficient capacity of the upstream wafer factory. It is reported that at present, the orders of wafer foundries such as TSMC, liandian, world advanced, and Li Jidian have been fully filled in the fourth quarter, and the advanced process and mature process capacity have been fully booked by customers in the first half of next year. The charging head network also confirmed this statement from the original fast charging chip factory. At present, the delivery time of fast charging chip is generally more than three months. This also indicates that this year's shortage is different from the past. It not only has a wide range, but also has a particularly long time cycle.
From the perspective of the fast charging power industry, it is understood that the 20W PD fast charging chip is the most affected by the shortage storm, and the direct cause of chip shortage is the listing of iPhone 12 series mobile phones.
Because for the new iPhone 12, full speed charging can be realized only with a PD fast charging charger of 20W and above, and the USB PD fast charging protocol chip plays a decisive role in this process.
At present, Apple has 14 mobile phones that support USB PD fast charging. Since the launch of the iphone12, the iphone12 series and the three old models sold on the official website no longer give away chargers, which makes the 20W PD fast charging charger a class of products that have attracted much attention among consumer power supplies.
Another industry analyst pointed out that the shipment of iPhone 12 series mobile phones is expected to reach 75 million units in 2020, and the strategy of not providing standard charger is bound to create a huge market gap, which will lead to tight supply of iPhone fast charging accessories, and even lead to a blowout of 20W PD fast charging accessories in the short term.
Compared with Apple's official 20W PD fast charging charger with a price of 149 yuan, many third-party parts manufacturers control the price at 39-79 yuan. Even some products with premium brands are much cheaper than Apple's official. So many consumers will give up Apple's official and choose third-party accessories instead. This also created a new and huge 20W PD fast charging market. A large number of third-party parts manufacturers took advantage of the opportunity, resulting in a sudden increase in the demand for 20W PD fast charging chips.
For the original fast charging chip manufacturers and solution providers, on the one hand, some manufacturers did not layout the 20W PD fast charging scheme in advance in order to predict the fast charging market. They never expected that the 20W PD fast charging market would come so fierce. According to the sales data obtained by charging head from tmall / Taobao, at present, there are more than 10000 third-party 20W PD fast charging in 30 days, of which the monthly sales of 20W PD fast charging in Anker tmall flagship store alone has exceeded 60000, and the data is very amazing.
On the other hand, even though some manufacturers have launched the 20W PD fast charging scheme in advance, they are not fully sure to ensure 100% compatibility before the launch of iPhone 12 series, so they are also in a relatively conservative state in the preparation of the scheme; After verifying the compatibility and then preparing the goods again, it just caught up with the market of wafer factory explosion. Especially the USB PD fast charging protocol chip, the contradiction between supply and demand is particularly prominent.
2、 Current situation of 20W PD fast charging market
In today's 20W PD fast charging power market, the era of cash and spot has long ceased to exist. "Money without goods, quotation without delivery date" has also become the current situation of 20W PD fast charging industrial chain.
The above is a circle of friends released by a USB PD fast charging practitioner. Although the picture is funny, it is indeed a true portrayal of the current situation of the industry. Some commentators said that they should go directly to the packaging factory to urge the delivery date, while others thought that everything was futile.
"Urgent notice: due to the influence of external factors such as wafers, the shortage will continue. For subsequent supply, priority will be given to high-quality customers with good payment, and urgent orders will not be received! I hope everyone can understand and support each other!".
"Official announcement 3 times, XX all chips are seriously out of stock. Please make a plan and queue up.".
In the case of chip shortage, the price rise has become an inevitable result. At present, a number of chip manufacturers in the industry have posted price adjustment notices, including orders that have been placed but have not yet been delivered.
"It is a foregone conclusion that the price of goods out of stock will rise; you may not have goods if you have money; you may not have goods if you have no plan; it is the best news to increase the price and have goods...".
3、 How to alleviate the shortage situation
Facing the increasingly tense supply-demand relationship of 20W PD fast charging chips, how can the fast charging power supply factory stand out and find a way to break the situation? At present, there are two common ways in the industry. One is to find a new 20W PD fast charging scheme with stable supply, and the other is to replace the existing 20W PD fast charging chip with a full-function chip.
In terms of supply stability, such as the veteran power chip manufacturer, Tong Jia technology, based on its own product development experience, it has introduced a complete set of high integration 20W PD fast charging scheme, and through active communication with upstream upstream foundry, awesome power supply and sufficient chip demand. It can effectively alleviate the problem of insufficient supply of 20W PD fast charging chips in the current market.
Coincidentally, facing the shortage of 20W PD fast charging protocol chips, Xinhai Technology, a leading domestic chip enterprise, has also launched a USB PD fast charging protocol chip css34p16, which can provide a complete USB type-C and USB power supply port control solution for applications such as adapter, vehicle charger and mobile power supply.
In terms of seeking alternative chips, 20W PD fast charging scheme has more options. For example, the AC-DC power supply scheme, the current mainstream 20W PD fast charging is highly integrated design. In case of stock shortage, the power chip with higher power specification can be used to replace it. At the same time, the highly integrated power supply scheme can also be changed to the scheme of separate device design.
For the most scarce protocol core at present, the current PD fast charging chargers adopt DFP (downstream facing port) controller, which only needs to be responsible for providing external electrical functions. When the DFP controller is in short supply, it is an effective scheme to replace it with DRP (dual role port) controller for mobile power supply.
According to the incomplete statistics of the charging head network, there are 15 mainstream DRP two-way USB PD fast charging protocol chips in the market, including 9 fast charging chip brands such as cypress, Xinhai, Chengyi, tiandeyu (Tianyu), ledrui, Liyi, Nanxin, Shilan and Youwei technology.
However, it should be noted that although it is theoretically feasible to replace the existing 20W PD fast charging scheme with higher specification chips, fast charging power supply manufacturers must consider comprehensively from the aspects of product development difficulty, manufacturing cost and terminal product pricing strategy.
4、 Impact of chip shortage
According to the analysis of industry insiders, the tight capacity of upstream 8-inch wafer foundry is expected to be alleviated by the middle of 2021. The charging head network also learned that at present, most chip manufacturers that can provide 20W PD fast charging scheme are basically in the state of being urged by customers and continuously urging the upstream wafer foundry and packaging factory. A clever woman can't make bricks without rice. Even if the scheme design is excellent and there is no sufficient chip supply as support, everything is in vain.
Nowadays, the key to the shortage of 20W PD fast charging chips is the protocol chip. At the same time, the tight relationship between supply and demand will also cause unsalable power chips. Therefore, even if the power chips are well stocked, their later shipment will be greatly affected.
For fast charging factories, the insufficient supply of chips has led many manufacturers not to control the order volume. At the same time, the system cost of a single product will also increase. Some factories even can't normally promote the 20W PD fast charging product project because they can't buy chips.
For some brands, thanks to the large brand premium space of 20W PD fast charging new products, even if the subsequent production cost increases, it can still ensure sufficient profit space and will not affect the selling price of terminal products due to chip shortage. At the same time, consumers do not have to worry about the price rise of 20W PD fast charging. Moreover, in addition to 20W PD fast charging, there are more and more high-power fast charging products for everyone to choose from.